What is a good grip strength for my age?

Compare yourself with age- and sex-specific percentiles rather than a single number. In international norms from 2.4 million adults, average grip peaked at ages 30-39 at 49.7 kg for men and 29.7 kg for women, then declined.

What is the average grip strength for a 50-year-old?

In the international norms, the median for ages 50-54 was 46.2 kg for men and 28.2 kg for women, measured with a hydraulic dynamometer, seated, taking the best of three tries per hand.

How much grip strength do you lose per decade?

On average, international data show a small decline in middle adulthood (about 2.8 kg per decade in men and 1.4 kg in women) and a larger one in late adulthood (about 5.6 kg and 3.5 kg).

What equipment do I need?

A hand dynamometer. The Jamar hydraulic dynamometer is the most widely used in research, with established reliability. Cheaper digital models exist, but their readings may not match published norms exactly.

Should I use my best or average score?

Studies differ, which is one reason scores are hard to compare. Pick one rule, such as the best of three tries per hand, and use it every time so your own results are comparable.

Can I test grip without a dynamometer?

Dead hangs and farmer's carries are useful training benchmarks, but they are not the measure used in the norms or the mortality studies, so their results cannot be compared with them.

Grip Strength Test: How to Measure It and How Your Score Compares

A grip strength test uses a hand dynamometer to measure how hard you can squeeze, in kilograms. The number only means something if you use a consistent protocol and compare it with age- and sex-specific norms: in the largest international dataset, average grip peaked at 49.7 kg in men and 29.7 kg in women at ages 30-39, then declined. This page is not medical advice.

Not medical advice. A low score is a reason to talk to a clinician and to train strength, not a diagnosis.

This page is about measuring grip. For what the mortality studies show and how to interpret them, see grip strength and longevity.

How to run the test

The method matters. A review of grip measurement in research found “wide variability in the choice of equipment and protocol”, and that this variation can affect the values recorded. Studies reported the maximum or the mean, from one to three attempts, with either hand or only the dominant hand. The authors’ answer was a standardised protocol. For home testing, the principle is consistency:

Device: The Jamar is the device most studies use, and its reliability between repeat tests and between testers is well established. The large PURE study used one.
Position: Use the same position every time, seated or standing. In British normative data, results were robust to dynamometer type and to seated vs. standing position, but mixing set-ups still adds noise.
Attempts: Pick a rule, such as three attempts per hand with a short rest, and always record the same summary (best or mean).
Record both hands: The US reference values below give separate figures for the dominant and nondominant hand.

To compare yourself with the international percentiles below, copy the reference protocol the Tomkinson norms were adjusted to: a hydraulic dynamometer, seated, elbow flexed, forearm in a neutral position, handle adjusted to hand size, both hands tested, 3 repetitions per hand, and the maximum recorded. Squeeze steadily for a few seconds rather than jerking, and rest for about a minute between attempts on the same hand.

Norms by age and sex

Dataset	People	Key reference points
Tomkinson et al., 2025	2,405,863 adults, 69 countries and regions	Peak at ages 30-39: 49.7 kg (men), 29.7 kg (women); decline accelerates from middle to late adulthood
Dodds et al., 2014	49,964 people in Great Britain, ages 4 to 90	Peak median 51 kg in men (ages 29-39) and 31 kg in women (ages 26-42)
Wang et al., 2018	1,232 US adults aged 18 to 85	Means from 49.7 kg (men 25-29, dominant hand) to 18.7 kg (women 75-79, nondominant hand)

Percentiles by age

Selected values from the international norms, in kilograms. The 50th percentile is the median; a score at the 20th percentile is lower than 80% of people of the same age and sex.

Age	Men P20	Men P50	Men P80	Women P20	Women P50	Women P80
20–24	40.5	48.0	56.0	24.0	28.6	33.6
30–34	42.2	49.7	57.4	24.4	29.7	35.2
40–44	40.4	48.8	57.1	23.7	29.4	35.2
50–54	37.4	46.2	54.8	22.4	28.2	34.0
60–64	33.6	42.4	51.1	20.6	26.2	31.8
70–74	29.3	37.7	46.3	18.3	23.6	28.9
80–84	24.5	32.3	40.5	15.5	20.4	25.3

Grip declined every decade after the peak. In the same dataset, the per-decade drop in middle adulthood was equivalent to about 2.8 kg in men and 1.4 kg in women, rising in late adulthood to about 5.6 kg and 3.5 kg. The authors also published norms divided by height squared, which peaked at 16.3 kg/m² in men and 11.3 kg/m² in women; these help taller or shorter people compare like with like.

The international norms are tabulated as percentiles from the 5th to the 95th, which is the most useful comparison: it tells you where you sit among people of your age and sex. The British data show three phases: a rise to a peak in early adult life, maintenance to midlife, and decline from midlife onwards. By age 80, weak grip (at least 2.5 SDs below the sex-specific peak mean) affected 23% of men and 27% of women.

Common mistakes that skew the number

Small changes in set-up move the reading, which is why the measurement review pushed for one standard method. Watch for these when testing at home:

Wrong handle size: a handle set too wide or too narrow for your hand lowers the score. A common guide is to set it so the middle finger bends at roughly a right angle.
Bracing the arm: resting the forearm on a table or pressing the elbow into your side changes the test. Keep the arm free unless your chosen protocol says otherwise.
Testing when tired: a hard upper-body session or a cold hand earlier in the day can lower the result. Test at a similar time, before training.
Mixing devices: a spring or digital gauge can read differently from a hydraulic one, so do not compare a home reading taken on one device with an earlier reading on another.

What the score does and does not tell you

Grip tracks overall strength and is linked with mortality in large cohorts. A dose-response meta-analysis found all-cause mortality risk fell in a close-to-linear way across 26-50 kg of grip. That is population-level and observational: it does not set a personal target, and those kilogram figures came from studies using different devices. The longevity page covers the caveats.

How to use your result

Track it over time: Retest every few months with the same device and protocol. Your own trend is more informative than one reading.
Train the whole body: Grip improves with general strength training; see the strength training protocol.
Expect modest change: in a meta-analysis of 24 trials in adults aged 60 or older, exercise programs produced small but significant gains in grip. Task-specific and multimodal training looked most effective, and grip did not reliably reflect every program’s benefits.
Combine with other tests: Grip is one test among several; the fitness testing guide covers aerobic fitness, leg strength and balance.

Limits of the evidence

Norms were pooled from studies using different devices and protocols, and the international norms relied on statistical harmonisation. National norms may suit you better than global ones. Home dynamometers are rarely validated against the Jamar.